156 MEMOIR OF 



This is exactly what Russell might have 

 done in the heyday of his Oxford life. 



But now, a few examples will sufhce to show 

 how severely long were the distances to cover 

 which Russell habitually performed, both with 

 foxhounds and staghounds, from the first hour of 

 his mastership down to the last year of his life. 

 More than once has he gone, in the grey of 

 the morning, on horseback, from Iddesleigh to 

 Four-hole Cross on the Bodmin moors — over 

 fifty miles — hunted as long as there was light 

 to see a hound, then, singing '' Dulce, dulce 

 domum," turned his horse's head and ridden, 

 through the gloom of night, back to his 

 home. 



Milestones were never heeded bv him when 

 the object was to meet hounds ; indeed, along 

 the wild tracts and bv-roads over which his 



■J 



course usually lay, no such landmarks could 

 have been seen on the longest summer-day. 



During the stag-hunting period of 1877, 

 Russell, in accordance with his custom for the 

 last sixty years, on every occasion but one, 

 rode to Cloutsham Ball and Hawkcombe Head, 

 hunted all day, and returned to his residence 

 at Tordown by eleven o'clock p.m. ; the distance 

 to either meet being about twenty-five miles, 

 more or less, and the road in many parts little 

 better than a mere bridle-path. Long habit, 

 which is second nature, added to a physical 



